OMG, another namby pamby chastized me for being

insensitive! Dark humor seems to go along with aviation in particular and there is a good reason for it. Better to have a sick laugh than burst into tears. Yes, the world would be overrun with lawyers and doctors if it weren't for the Beech Bonanza. Such humor is a reminder that when we become too full of ourselves we greatly increase the chance of augering in. Most aviation accidents are pilot error, at least to some degree. All of my close calls were largely the result of my mistakes, or could have been avoided if I had done things differently. Dark humor over a friend's death is not limited to aviation and should just be considered "man stuff". If you find such humor offensive then maybe you should hang out with the girls.

I never heard the joke, but I can live without it. n/t.

Re: I never heard the joke, but I can live without it. n/t.

July 17 2012, 4:56 PM

Yeah, it wouldn't be funny to a lot of people. It's an outgrowth of the Bonanza's reputation for some kind of tricky handling characteristic (spin? I forget) causing a lot of accidents, and that they were often purchased by doctors and lawyers who may not have been skilled enough pilots to handle the situation.

As I've said before, Ed.....

July 17 2012, 6:29 PM

quoting my now-deceased All-American high school football coach ("There are two kinds of people on this earth: meat-and-potatoes eaters and jellybread eaters.") I sometimes smell grape jelly around the "pages" of HS...

1. One day at MUO, a crew was going out on a "difficult" night training mission. As the crew passed out the door to go out on the ramp, one of our crew dogs asked the leftseater, a young captain Corvette driver, "Can I have your 'Vette?"

2. One of our senior pilots was briefing fourship flight integrity and said, "If I screw up and crash into that mountain, I wanna see three holes right beside mine."

3. A TAC jet aircrew prayer: "Lord, if I hafta go, please make it supersonic; I don't wanna hafta think about it."

Almost every squadron loss my assigned units incurred over the fourteen years I spent in TAC could be traced to aircrew error, no matter how good a "stick" the front/left seater was.....

Some folks don't understand the need for black humor.

July 17 2012, 7:38 PM

I soldiered and spent some time as a cop. My wife used to be an E.M.T. on an ambulance crew. She gets on my case everytime I refer to an ambulance as a "Meat Wagon". "Different strokes for different folks". Adios, Larry.

Field Artillery brings dignity to what otherwise might be merely a vulgar brawl.